I’m slender, but I do not believe most would say skinny. In one passage, Handbook for Mortals protagonist Zade muses that she’s often called beautiful but she doesn’t see it: (In James’s case, Anastasia Steele is perhaps more transparently based on Twilight’s protagonist Bella, who closely resembles the series author Stephenie Meyer.) Sarem is right, however, that the literary scene shares one objection to both Fifty Shades and Handbook for Mortals: that they’re poorly written works of fantasy fulfillment, with a beautiful-but-doesn’t-know-it protagonist thinly based on the author. However, even HuffPo cannot resist to take some snipes at purple prose that caused some to suspect it to be the same author as My Immortal:

I imagine that the only reason SocJus slurs haven't been rolled out is because of the competing bestseller having impeccable PoC and BLM credentials. Now the authoress is accusing the industry of being closed-minded and hostile to outsiders, and is trying to ride in on the coattails of Fifty Shades of Gray (Grey?). A sterling example of gaming the system as part of a cash grab with a side serving of self-aggrandizement. It's a film script ill-disguised as a book, which Phil Stamper described as a sly attempt to secure the NYT tag before going into movie production anonymous sources indicate the sales had a malicious slant to them rather than were intended for promotion. It also provides us with a broad outline of Sarem's plan. She’s been joined in much of the promotion by actor and musician Thomas Ian Nicholas, best known for his role in the “American Pie” franchise, who is attached to produce Handbook for Mortals as a film ― and to star in it, along with Sarem herself. Chasez and now debut author ― insisted during the interview that the sales success of Handbook for Mortals was well-earned through months of plugging the book at Wizard World Comic Con events. Sarem ― a sometime actress in mostly “uncredited” roles, erstwhile music manager to bands like 100 Monkeys and Blues Traveler, cousin to J.C. Not only has someone set up this IMDB page with her in the protagonist's role, but our most beloved dumpster, HuffPo, has run its own article on it, which states that and got Baned under Rule 7, because it was only a conjecture. I announced these suspicions to the most esteemed of all subreddits. A fuller version of the interview is found here.

The side-by-side image in this article, along with a few phrases, had given me the impression that this is the apex of the self-insert aspect of Mary Sues - writing a book with the explicit intent to rapidly churn out a movie with herself in that idealized leading role. The drama with the almost completely unknown book making it to the top of NYT Bestseller list keep getting curiouser and curiouser, and it's not NYT's fault.

Handbook for mortals author